If somone told Johnny Tuivasa-Sheck when he was young he would give up his pursuit of making the Warriors' NRL side to join their social media team, he wouldn't have believed it for a second.
But after and a life-changing talk with his dad, that's exactly what's happened to the 23-year-old.
And he couldn't be happier.
Tuivasa-Sheck sat down with TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning to share his story, which now includes over 118,000 followers on Instagram, 155,000 followers on Facebook and his YouTube channel has 34,000 subscribers.
The social media star says he doesn’t want to influence young fans with a lifestyle he doesn’t follow.
"I kind of decided when I was young, [rugby league] wasn't for me but because my dad was doing it and Roger was doing it, I thought, 'oh, its' the family thing to do' so I followed that."
The younger brother of Warriors captain Roger showed promise, making the Warriors reserve grade last season but he quickly found the game wasn't the same.
"When you get to that professional level, it just sucks out a lot of the fun," he said.
"We'd spend three hours a day watching video on ourselves and another three hours watching what other people would do and it was just really analytical."
Meanwhile, Tuivasa-Sheck was starting to become a hit on social media, with his light-hearted skits seeing him gain serious following as he found something he loved to do - a passion his father picked up on.
"Last year, my dad was like, 'hey son, I see that your passion isn't rugby and you enjoy the video stuff so you should go chase that'."
He didn't think twice.
"It was definitely scary leaving it because that was all I knew growing up as a kid but I think not staying true to myself is even more scary.
"It wasn't me and I knew that."
Now, Tuivasa-Sheck is part of the Warriors social media team, using his creativity and humour to help entertain fans off the field while his brother does so on it.
"I get to do whatever I want, I can be whoever I want in the videos so it's fun and creative. It's not the same thing every day."
SHARE ME